(Washington) — Eight years after construction began, the Mountain Valley Pipeline now has the green light to begin pumping frack natural gas.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday afternoon signed off on a request from builders of the Mountain Valley Pipeline to go into service as soon as possible. Federal regulators say the 303-mile long pipeline, which terminates at the TransCo Compressor Station in Pittsylvania County, is in full compliance with environmental conditions.
Equitrans, the lead developer on the pipeline, says they’ve completed hydrotesting — along with all welding, testing, cleaning, drying and tie-ins.
The final price tag will be nearly eight billion dollars. That’s more than double the original estimates made in 2013 when the project was first announced.
A congressional budget compromise last year removed all of the legal challenges that had been filed against the project. On two separate occcasions, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond rescinded all federal permits that had been granted to the pipeline, forcing developers to essentially go back to the drawing board.
In 2022, West Virginia Senator (D) Joe Man
chin agreed to support the Inflation Control Act in exchange for a bill ordering agencies to allow construction of the pipeline. When that effort failed, Manchin sponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have exempted the Pipeline from normal permitting processes. That effort failed in a Senate vote.
Last year, Congress signed off on a debt ceiling deal which included a Manchin provision to fast-track completion of the pipeline. It effectively ended all existing legal challenges. Environmental groups claimed Congress violated the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine by overruling courts.